Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
October 16, 2006
Magnitude 6.6 earthquake on Big Island.
Sounds like Kona and Waikiki got the brunt of it.
Anyone heard if there is damage on the mountain?
All the telescopes ok? The Keck mountain web site seems to be down.
UPDATE: sounds like minor telescope drive/mount damage at Keck 2
- see Brad Holden's…
October 13, 2006
NY Times has article claiming US Air Force sources say they found radiological evidence for a nuclear explosion on overflights
Tentative, but indicative.
We may now find out whether Japan could literally build a nuke over a long weekend.
They ought to be able to, maybe one of two nations that could…
October 13, 2006
The physical science carnival, Philosophia Naturalis Part Deux is out at Nonoscience
See here for future carnivals
October 13, 2006
Happy friday the 13th!
We ask the Mighty iPod a more serious question for the occasion:
Oh, Mighty iPod - are there gauge fields, hidden in the Standard Model, which show up as extra hair on astrophysical black holes, and could we see evidence for this in measurements of multipole moments during…
October 12, 2006
Fourth Billy Bragg podcast is online here
Ah, 1984, a Good Year. Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy segways to Brewing Up With Billy Bragg.
He is also Live blogging his road tour..
Now I am really sorry I missed the Golden Gate concert.
Wah.
October 12, 2006
From Dr B herself
there is a wiki Academic Blog Portal
Go browse, add yourselves, or Colbert the site, or something.
October 12, 2006
Interesting segment on Olbermann's show last night; another Bush Admin book expose is coming out on monday: "Tempting Faith" by David Kuo.
DarkSyde also blogs on it
Short version: the administration is, unsurprisingly, insincere in its claims christian faith; they are contemptuous of their…
October 12, 2006
Who ordered that?
A couple of years ago, Prof Buzasi at the US Air Force Academy, mentioned he had acquired a new toy...
"The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs has obtained a 4m-diameter, lightweight telescope from the discontinued Space Based Laser project. Originally…
October 11, 2006
Had fun attending HEAD in San Fran last week.
Came away with some impressions...
GLAST is really on an upswing.
Spacecraft is delivered, launch scheduled, first science meeting planned (before launch?!), and there was a lot of vibe about the prospects.
Suzaku has some interesting results. I was too…
October 11, 2006
Nuclear Mangos has a good summary and pointer set on North Korea and its nuke.
armscontrolwonk has a good series of informative posts. Including a seismograph image from IRIS which I shamelessly pass on:
IRIS says magnitude 4.2, presumably on the Richter scale.
I've heard ranges from 3.6 to 4.6…
October 9, 2006
As many of you know, the Beyond Einstein mission line is being sent to Thunderdome to see who survives a meeting of the Dreaded NRC Committee To Be Named At A Later Time.
Apparently the mission teams may have to present their case in as little as three weeks, which is causing some interesting…
October 9, 2006
While in California, I went to the HEAD meeting (High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society) in San Francisco.
Good fun, more on details later as I assimilate (even Phil couldn't properly live-blog the meeting - those F-18s are bloody loud).
And I missed Billy! Again.…
October 6, 2006
It is almost midnight, and we seek guidance.
Oh, mighty iPod one: is the Smith solution of the Navier-Stokes equations a true immortal solution of this legendary problem?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Why - Tracy Chapman
The Crossing: The Passion - Billy Bragg
The Crown:…
October 6, 2006
Short news in Nature says there is a claim for one of the Millennial Clay Problems
Possible exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations by Penny Smith a Lehigh University.
That would be a serious achievement if it holds up to review.
Be interesting to code it up and see if it is stable as well…
October 6, 2006
The SWEEPS survey of distant stars in the galactic bulge has finally announced their findings.
They found 16 transiting "hot Jupiters" with the Advanced Camera for Surveys synoptic imaging of a field towards the center of the Milky Way.
Five of the planets are ultra short period (day or less) and…
October 6, 2006
Am at a meeting out west, with remarkably poor internet access given the location and sponsors.
But good meeting nevertheless.
But it keeps being interrupted by the Blue Angels, navy air show team, buzzing the hotel.
So the USS Nimitz is in town, which answers the question of where she's been.
USS…
October 3, 2006
The Academy has spoken, as expected the NASA COBE mission measurement of the cosmic microwave background won the Physics Nobel prize, with the award shared equally by John Mather at NASA Goddard and George Smoot at Berkeley
Congratulations!
This is a well deserved award, although I expect several…
October 2, 2006
What is National Security Presidential Directive 31?
Repost:
I saw some slides from a public NASA HQ presentation made a few weeksmonths ago.
It was on the timeline for the Terrestrial Planet Finder, and the Navigator program beyond that.
On one slide, there's a footnote - NSPD Jan 2004. with a…
October 2, 2006
Earlier this year I was at a military ceremony.
The keynote speaker was an active duty flag officer, in logistics.
Good speech, humorous anecdote, solemn moment, look to the future...
and in the middle he snuck in a somewhat discordant meaty section.
He discussed the distinction between the…
September 29, 2006
Traveling friday, and we ask a timely question:
Oh Mighty Omniscient One - who will the Academy give the nod to next week for that most noble of all science prized?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Modern Things - Björk
The Crossing: Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley and the…
September 28, 2006
Drove to DC today.
Took six hours, rather longer than planned.
Car transporter jack-knifed on the PA turnpike, took out two 18 wheelers. If there were any passenger cars involved, they'd been cleared up by the time I got through.
Heavy rain.
As I approached the beltway, it had become an impressive…
September 27, 2006
Via NASAwatch - NASA administrator Griffin replies to the American Astronomical Societies' Six Questions On NASA Priorities and Processes
Read it.
Interesting, tempered, with interesting conceptual holes.
1) the "mission balance" is not just different size missions, it is also different sub-fields…
September 27, 2006
The 2006 Nobel Laureates will be announced on Monday, October 2. Any early guesses as to who this year's honorees will be?...
No.
To be precise, on monday the boring old medicine prize will be announced. Things don't really get exciting until tuesday... and the process doesn't finish until oct 13.…
September 26, 2006
This spring I took a look at the Iranian nuclear options.
The summary version is that I think the focus on uranium enrichment is a red herring (unless there is intelligence that says there is a policy decision in Iran to go that route - presumably following Pakistan - except the public evidence is…
September 25, 2006
Lots of news and speculation on possible steps to mobilization by US forces to position for a strike on Iran.
They couldn't be that stupid, could they?
Old Speculation Updated.
So... in my humble and uninformed opinion, if the US were to launch a air strike on Iran, supported by Navy aircraft and…
September 25, 2006
One of the topics at the Pale Blue Dot workshop last week was detection of technological biosignatures.
Serious discussion on everything from "I Love Lucy", early warning radars, and Dyson Sphere's to isotopic signatures of fission waste disposal in main sequence stars. The latter is stranger than…
September 25, 2006
I have come to the conclusion that the Pearl Jam cover of Kick out the Jams is actually better than the original...
Maybe I'm just getting old.
September 22, 2006
Our masters voice speaks and Asks the ScienceBloggers:
Why do men have a longer period of fertility, relative to their lifespan, than women? (Bonus: is this true of other species as well?)...
I Am Not A Biologist, but... I am a theorist, so here goes:
Because it is metabolically cheap for men to…